Miners extracting Bath stone from the Elm Park mine at Gastard, near Corsham

A chance meeting at a rescue exercise in Devizes led to Ian Butterworth becoming the owner of his own mine.

Mr Butterworth and his wife Sally own Wessex Dimensional Stone which includes mines at Chilmark, near Salisbury, and Elm Park at Gastard, near Corsham, and a quarry at Hurdcott near Salisbury.

He said: "I had been in the quarrying business for about 16 years when I went to a mine rescue training exercise at Wiltshire Fire Brigade's training centre on the Hopton Industrial Estate in Devizes about four years ago.

"I got talking to the owner of Chilmark and he just happened to mention he wanted to sell up. I told him I was interested in buying and we went from there."

Mr Butterworth, 45, now supplies an ever-growing amount of specialist natural stone to the building trade.

He said: "Builders are gradually coming to realise that natural stone is not that much more expensive than reconstituted stone and it is much nicer to look at.

"It is also a much greener product as the carbon footprint of natural stone is about ten times less than reconstituted."

Elm Park mine produces Bath stone and is in big demand for building projects in the area that need to fit in with traditional buildings.

But Mr Butterworth says that he is now trying to persuade Bath City Council that despite its strict guidelines on Bath stone being used on listed buildings, many developers are using different materials.

He said: "I have had a number of conversations with experts at the council who insist Bath stone is being used but I point out it is not and often the stone is coming in from way outside the area and is a slightly different colour.

"We need to educate them that our product at Elm Park is the real thing and a lot of the stone being passed off as Bath stone is not. It might take some time."

But his business is growing all the time. He now employs 20 people and in addition to his mines and quarry also runs a cutting and masonry yard and has a main office and show room just outside Chilmark village.

Each mine has a manager who is responsible for its running and safety, but Mr Butterworth spends two or three days a week underground himself and his wife is also involved in the admin side of the business when she is not looking after their three children.

He said: "A lot of what I do is about marketing and sales but because of my background I understand the mining and quarrying side as well and there are not many jobs I could not turn my hand to if I had to."

His stone has connections to a number of historic and famous buildings including Salisbury Cathedral and Hampton Court Palace.

Products from the mines and quarry include block stone for onward sale to cutting yards throughout the UK, cropped stone for new build houses and walling, cut and masoned stone for new build and restoration, stone for external and internal flooring and hard landscape materials.

One of the businesses supplied by Wessex Dimension Stone is Artisan in Devizes.

More than half the work undertaken by Artisans of Devizes is done in kitchens.

The company has seen a definite shift towards natural stone since its formation 16 years ago.

Hamish Smith, one of the partners at Artisans, said: "When we started the trend was for terracotta tiles. We used to have 15 different terracotta lines, now we have three.

"We also sold a lot of glazed man-made tiles when we began but we no longer sell any glazed or manufactured tiles."

9:59am Friday 11th April 2008

Print

Email this